Blogs... Really?

[kokonutmama]

I feel like everyone and her sister has a blog nowadays and I never ever read them, ever; who has time? But I hear some of you recommend them highly... Is there really money in blogging? Or do you do it to drive traffic to you site? Does that work? I'm dubious, convince me.

[Kristine233]

If you have a on your business website its AMAZING for SEO! It helps search engines index you better and then helps peopel find your website better.

[barose]

Originally Posted by Kristine233

If you have a on your business website its AMAZING for SEO! It helps search engines index you better and then helps peopel find your website better.

:

Most of the traffic to my website came from my basic Wordpress blog.

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by Kristine233

If you have a on your business website its AMAZING for SEO! It helps search engines index you better and then helps peopel find your website better.

The trick here is that you have to actually post interesting content on your blog, often.

I have a client who can't understand why her blog isn't getting her any traffic -- but she only has one post on it and it's nothing but keywords.

Do a search on your main keyword phrases, followed by the word blog, and you'll see some great examples of blogs in your industry.

For example:

baby sling blog
cloth diaper blog
product sellers blog

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by Night Owl

The trick here is that you have to actually post interesting content on your blog, often.

I have a client who can't understand why her blog isn't getting her any traffic -- but she only has one post on it and it's nothing but keywords.

Do a search on your main keyword phrases, followed by the word blog, and you'll see some great examples of blogs in your industry.

For example:

baby sling blog
cloth diaper blog
product sellers blog

Most definitely! The more the better.

I'm awful at posting on mine, but I do try to do once a month (You really should a couple times a week at least) but since I have good relevant content it still helps me a TON. Most of my hits are through my blog.

[kokonutmama]

hmmm, I do well enough by the search engines, but I can always use more traffic, lol. I wonder what I could write about...

[medaroge]

Write about your products and associated issues. Like write about the advantages of hemp/bamboo and the diva cup and issues surrounding your poducts. With keyword and links!

[vegmom]

I get a lot of search engine traffic from my blog. It is amazing to see what people search for and how they end up at my site! The system that I use is not wordpress but runs like wordpress on steriods. Google loves it. I am a complete dummy when it comes to anything techie and I was able to set my blog up myself. There was no plugins I needed to install (not that i even know what a plugin is . But I heard others having not so much fun with them.

[AngelBee]

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[brightonwoman]

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[kokonutmama]

my big idea has been to start a forum to drive "weird" search traffic to my sites, but I haven't gotten around to finishing it, and I know from experience that fori are hard to populate. Maybe I will do a blog, when I get time...

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by kokonutmama

my big idea has been to start a forum to drive "weird" search traffic to my sites, but I haven't gotten around to finishing it, and I know from experience that fori are hard to populate. Maybe I will do a blog, when I get time...

A blog is much better. You can make it match your site completely and its easier to keep up and active. Going to a pretty empty forum wont generate much, but a semi active blog with do a ton!

[CawMama]

I put up a recipe about how to make homemade fig newtons (I know...what the heck does that have to do with toys....but, I just loved the recipe and wanted to share) and have gotten a bunch of hits back to my shop from that!

[brightonwoman]

I'm a member of the etsy cloth diaper street team, and we did a promotion a few months ago that happened to involved giving away free diapers...so I have a blog post in my archives titled FREE CLOTH DIAPERS starting today! And I tell ya what, I get so many hits on that thing I actually had someone leave me a comment on it just today that they went to the site (the team blog) and hunted and couldn't find any free diapers. Um, well, it's a post from April...but I went back to the post and edited it to clarify anyway. But yeah, having certain keywords (like, apparently, FREE next to CLOTH DIAPER) will bring in traffic.

[kokonutmama]

Geeze, it kind of seems like cheating, doesn't it? But I guess as long as it works and other people can do it just as easily as I can, it's not unfair and worth looking into. Thanks!

[aprons_and_acorns]

I had a blog for a year or so before I started my business, and I just blog about our life and random kid and crafty topics. It is amazing how much my blog has helped me make sales. It drives traffic to my shop, and I also think the idea that people "know" me makes them likely to purchase from me. I think maybe 15-20% of my Etsy sales are from people who read my blog.

[Night Owl]

Originally Posted by aprons_and_acorns

I also think the idea that people "know" me makes them likely to purchase from me. I think maybe 15-20% of my Etsy sales are from people who read my blog.

That's exactly it. People prefer to buy from those they know, like and trust.

[mzfern]

So how can you tell that blog readers are buying more things for your shops? (Hope you don't mind my question as a non-WAHM )

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by mzfern

So how can you tell that blog readers are buying more things for your shops? (Hope you don't mind my question as a non-WAHM )

We are able to see entry pages on our web sites and can even set it up so that an entry page of a website will track sales etc. Since I offer a service and not a product I can't do that exactly, but I can still track my web stats to see what pages/areas of my website are attracting the most people, where they come from and keywords used to get to my web site. I use Google Analytics for this.

[mzfern]

Cool, thanks Kristine.